Agenda - 10-06-20; 6-c - Zoning Atlas Amendment – Master Plan Development Conditional Zoning District (MPD-CZ) for the Research Triangle Logistics Park (RTLP)

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Approved 9/2/2020 can be found, I urge the member of the Planning Commission to deny this proposal. Please help to protect my family 1118 and my neighbors. Thank you. 1119 1120 Beth Rosenberg: Thank you for taking the time to listen to all of us. I know it gets old for you after a while but I think 1121 listening to our concerns and some of our suggestions should prove valuable. I just have a few points to make, first 1122 is that although the Rural Buffer portion of that Davis Road property is supposedly going to be left to be wild land or 1123 whatever, all the traffic from this development now will be exiting onto Davis Road and going through a Rural Buffer 1124 area which seems counter to the purpose of that zoning designation. Another point I want to make is that Mr. 1125 Beeman mentioned that he drove Davis Road and Old 86 and the service road, if that was any time after February or 1126 March of this year, it was during the pandemic and the traffic has admittedly been much less during that time even 1127 through this current period of time because there’s no school traffic currently. Next point is that reading through the 1128 UDO, the purpose of the MPD-CZ zoning is to provide economical and efficient use of land, efficient land use, 1129 improve level of amenities, appropriate and harmonious variety, creative design and a better environment and I don’t 1130 see where this project is likely to provide any of that for us. I, like everybody else tonight, urge you to not approve 1131 this plan and not sent it forward to the Board of Commissioners. Thank you for your time. 1132 1133 Declan Cambey: My name is Declan Cambey, I’m 18 years old and I’ve lived in Hillsborough my whole life. I’ve 1134 grown to know all my neighbors, have usual and local restaurants and I’ve walked down the Riverwalk with friends or 1135 into the new Orange County library to check out a new book probably 100s of times. Now both the Riverwalk and the 1136 new library and the development with Paw at the Corner and Whit’s Frozen Custard, these have all greatly improved 1137 my quality of life so I’m all for development that can benefits the members of this community of this town. But from 1138 what I’ve read and what I’ve heard today this proposal for Research Triangle Logistics Park will actively hinder the 1139 quality of life for Hillsborough natives by increasing traffic, noise and pollution while simultaneously destroying 1140 precious green space along Davis Road and along Old NC Hwy. 86 which is a designated scenic byway and houses 1141 many cyclists as has been mentioned. Now I know the applicant team has brought many experts to try to address all 1142 of our concerns but that doesn’t change the fact that this is not what our community wants. I found out about this 1143 meeting on Instagram and this account has 50 followers mostly young folks like myself that I went to school with at 1144 Cedar Ridge. The Facebook group against this industrial park has 386 members and there have been thousands of 1145 signatures on the petition that has been mentioned earlier. On another note, the possibility of jobs is not the promi se 1146 of jobs. As has been mentioned, these developers have not shared any companies or agencies that will set up shop 1147 in this research park. Also, when many traditional jobs are transitioning online why are we investing in warehouse 1148 space that could just be bought over by large companies like UPS and Amazon, this is not a necessary project right 1149 now and I call on the Planning Board to reject its proposal. As a young person, I speak for all future generations that 1150 will suffer if this project is approved. Thank you. 1151 1152 Rebecca Drapp: I live off NC Hwy 86. I moved to Hillsborough like others have said for the community aspect of it. I 1153 feel like this is going to destroy our community for all the reasons other people have said, decreasing property values 1154 even when they were given that presentation they couldn’t guarantee that this would raise the property values. I 1155 worry about the quality of life for everyone with the trucks with the big industry. I think the charm of Hillsborough is 1156 the very rural, local businesses that is how we make our community better. That’s according to local businesses and 1157 reinvesting in small places and it sounds like this is just going to be a big warehouse where, I don’t even know if it’s 1158 going to have good quality jobs. I’ll cede because it’s late, thank you for listening. I just wanted to voice my dissent to 1159 this project. 1160 1161 Jeb Kelly: I live off Davis Drive, a couple things I wanted to point out that haven’t been mentioned, the developer in 1162 their pitch tonight referenced the 40-year history of planned development here. I don’t think that 40 years included 1163 routing 90% of the traffic onto Davis Drive. In Ms. Greene’s presentation, she referenced the amount of traffic 1164 coming onto Davis Drive as approximately 1600 vehicles a day, I went back and reviewed the TIA from the DOT and 1165 they estimated over 3600 vehicles a day, 90% of that would be about 3100. I think we deserve a little more of an 1166 explanation on the discrepancy there. Ms. Greene also in her own words, mentioned that people will tend to find a 1167 different route of willing to drive further when traffic backs up and that’s exactly our concern. When traffic backs up at 1168 that exchange of 86 and 40, regardless of the signage, they’re going to be looking for other routes, they’re going to 1169 come down Davis, Ode Turner they’re going to head to that 4-way stop at New Hope. They’re going look for other 1170 ways. On top of that there’s a reason that they’re looking at the 40 exchange here, a lot of people are skeptical of the 1171 jobs being created, I think we have a right to be skeptical, I think there’s a lot of jobs would go to Mebane, Burlington, 1172 Durham. I think we’ve be compromising our community here for commuters and I think Orange County Planning 1173 39